Holiday Marketing Round Up

The mad rush of the holiday season can add stress to even the calmest marketer. The antidote to holiday marketing madness? Planning!

Moo, our email savvy digital ranger, has put together this holiday marketing round up page for you to use as a reference guide. She’s covered all the bases from email marketing, SEO, ecommerce and more. She’s still working on this list, so check back often.

And if you need some expert advice but can’t find it on the digital range, ask us. Our experts are always looking to Moo for blog suggestions.

There’s a reason we listed this one first. Now is the time to get started. Don’t panic if you read this mid-November, or later. You’ll just have to tighten up your schedule to hit all the right bases. If your one of the early birds, then start sending some “pre-holiday” promotions, but be careful not to oversend. Customers are alreading receiving tons of marketing from other companies.

B2B businesses don’t have to miss out on all the holiday hoopla. Leverage the true meaning of Thanksgiving and give thanks–then give back. If you are in a position to do so, consider offering a portion of your sales to charity. Show your commitment to your customers and your community. Be Thankful!

Are you an ecommerce vendor? Don’t assume that everything is running smoothly on the back end. You could be losing lots of sales through Shopping Cart Abandonment. Did you know that Abandonment rates average 65% and as high as >80% during holiday season? Using a series of carefully timed emails, called “cart abandonment emails,” you can recover up to 20% of the money you might otherwise have lost. Bottom line: If you have an ecommerce site, using cart abandonment emails is a no-brainer. Recover Carts!

You have probably begun retooling your other marketing efforts to leverage the seasonal surge in consumer spending. PPC campaigns get tweaked and turned back on, and landing pages get refreshed. Emails are tightened up and reconfigured based on what worked last year, and on current inventory. And of course you are working your social media channels. But SEO typically generates 25-50% of a site’s traffic and can be the strongest source of new prospects and of engagement with existing ones. And although SEO is generally a long term process, you probably need an SEO tune-up for the holidays. Adjust SEO!

You know the marketing people have taken over when you see “Pre Black Friday Sales.” It’s not enough to have a sale on Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, or Cyber Monday. Now retailers are offering pre-sales that start weeks before the actual dates! This kind of atmosphere is fantastic for consumers, especially the savvy ones among them. But it means that retailers need to think about keeping up with this trend. As of the writing of this blog, it’s already dangerously close to the prime part of the holiday season. So consider these last second holiday suggestions for your advertising campaigns. Try Remarketing!

Want to improve and optimize your email campaigns during the holidays and all year long? The first thing you should do is learn from last year. No strategy decisions should be made without looking at what you’ve done in the past. While your busy making this a better marketing year, don’t forget about the mobile users. 44% of searches for last-minute gifts and store locator terms will be from mobile devices. Optimize Campaigns!

While your busy making plans to market before the holidays, don’t toss all marketing aside once the ball drops on New Year’s Eve. Tell your customers that your business appreciates their loyalty, while keeping your brand on your prospect’s radar. Score Points!

Nonprofits have more in common with retail than you think. While retailers are busy trying to drum up more holiday sales, non-profits are hoping to see an increase in holiday donations. In their 2015 Light It Up Blue Campaign, Autism Speaks employed the use of cart abandonment, in this case “donation form abandonment,” to recapture interested donors who started to fill out the donation form and left before completing it. Increase Donations!